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Calling All Food-Droppers: the Five-Second Rule May Actually Be REAL

So, this happened the other morning: I put half of a freshly-toasted sprouted wheat bagel onto a plate and gave it a smear of peanut butter. I was carrying it to the table when... the thing slid off, right onto the kitchen floor. Peanut butter side-down, of course.

Yep, I'm a food-dropper. So I end up thinking about the "five-second rule" fairly regularly, usually reminding myself that research has shown that it doesn't matter how long a food item is on the ground; once it's there, it's contaminated with bacteria. Right?

Well, yes--but it's actually way less contaminated at five seconds than at a minute. If you pick up your fallen food at the minute mark, there will be 10 times the amount of bacteria on it than there was 55 seconds before. Ten times! Those bacteria move fast!

Have you ever eaten something that you dropped on the floor? If you do occasionally eat things that have been on the ground, what's your criteria for doing so (e.g., only fruit that you can wash off, only if you can grab it after one second, etc.)?